She’s allowed to say that. She doesn’t need my permission to say that dementia sucks or that it’s hard or even that she’s suffering. She’s allowed to say that dementia sucks sometimes. In fact, she can say that it sucks all the time. I’m not about to chastise her for her negativity.

She gets to define her own journey.

I don’t get to define her journey. That’s why I am not going to label her a “dementia sufferer” or a “dementia victim.”

It’s not up to me to decide if someone is a sufferer or a victim–which is why it’s so frustrating to me that the blanket term used in the media to describe someone living with dementia is often “dementia sufferer” or “dementia victim.”